THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (March 1, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Yakety-Yak’ – In “Language City”, Ross Perlin chronicles some of the precious traditions hanging on in New York, the world’s most linguistically diverse metropolis…
The feisty title character of her new book, “Ferris,” has a sharp eye for detail, and so, its author hopes, does she. Meanwhile, she is on an Alice McDermott reading jag.
In “Language City,” the linguist Ross Perlin chronicles some of the precious traditions hanging on in the world’s most linguistically diverse metropolis.
France-Amérique Magazine – March 1, 2024 – The new issue features ‘Francophonie Month’ – The French-Speaking Cowboys of Louisiana.
Meet Drake LeBlanc, the French- and Creole-speaking cowboy, filmmaker, and cofounder of Télé-Louisiane; read our interview with Harvard professor Claire-Marie Brisson on the North American Francosphere; and discover why “Molière may be dead, but his language is alive and well.”
CYRIL DEWAVRIN – The American Dream of a Serial Bookseller
Founding a French neighborhood bookstore in New York City was the madcap challenge undertaken by this avid reader and busy entrepreneur. The Frenchman has just opened La Joie de Vivre near Chelsea, a space offering books in French and English, coffee, and pastries.
By Benoît Georges
Also in this issue, Albert Camus travels to America; former ambassador Gérard Araud analyzes the White House race and its potential consequences for France and Europe; and French soccer star and LGBTQ+ advocate Marinette Pichon discusses her U.S. career and her fight for equality in women’s sports.
The National Gallery (March 1, 2024): Is there engineering in art, as well as art in engineering? We look at Turner’s famous depiction of a steam train in ‘Rain, Steam and Speed’ and stormy seas in ‘Dutch Boats in a Gale’ (1801).
Rob Bell from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers gives us an engineer’s take on these two paintings at the National Gallery. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was founded in 1847 and has over 100,000 members around the world.
HURVIN ANDERSON’S “BARBERSHOP” series belongs to a long tradition of painterly fascination with the spaces of social interaction that reflect both the physical realities and ideological aspirations of society at large. Anderson’s exhibition “Salon Paintings” at England’s Hastings Contemporary, organized in collaboration with the Hepworth Wakefield, also in England, and Kistefos Museum in Jevnaker, Norway, brings together a body of work he produced between 2006 and 2023 that portrays, albeit in the loosest sense of the word, men’s hair salons.
View of “Time Travel: Italian Masters Through a Contemporary Lens,” 2023–24. From left: Ross Bleckner, Day and Night, Hour by Hour, 2023; Josephine Halvorson, Smiley Face, 2023. Photo: Jason Mandella.
“Time Travel: Italian Masters Through a Contemporary Lens,” a group exhibition that featured a selection of Renaissance paintings alongside works created by present-day artists, was a type of paragone, except that the debate was not whether painting or sculpture is the superior art form, but whether these historical pieces—executed at a time when grand themes and exquisite craft, among other criteria, determined their value—are better or worse than objects made by artists now, when such antiquated metrics seem well beside the point.
The Globalist (March1, 2024):Russia analyst Stephen Dalziel discusses the atmosphere surrounding Alexey Navalny’s funeral in Moscow and the future of the opposition movement in Russia.
Plus: the latest on Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s visits to two Texas-Mexico border cities, film news and a special interview with two-time Academy Award-winner Hans Zimmer.
Palestinian and Israeli officials offered differing accounts of a deadly scene in northern Gaza, in which local health officials said more than 100 people were killed.
Colombia’s main airport has become a hub for migrants heading to the U.S. in greater numbers. Some have been stranded for weeks, or forcibly turned back.
President Biden dared former President Donald J. Trump to “join me” in tightening security, while Mr. Trump blamed Mr. Biden for the country’s broken immigration system.
Texas Wildfires Burn Through the Heart of Cattle Country, Upending Lives
A state known for its wide open space has now seen more than a million acres of it burned in the largest wildfire on record in Texas history, with two confirmed deaths.
Science Magazine – February 29, 2024: The new issue features ‘Protoplanetary Disk’ – Ultraviolet radiation drives rapid mass loss; What awaits scientist who take the witness stand; Nitrogen sneaks into carbon’s reaction; Endocannabinoids help shape spatial representation…
Great Big Story (February 29, 2024); The Italian Alps, home to countless quintessential Italian villages…and one not-so traditional. Welcome to Gurro, the Scottish village in Italy.
So what actually makes this village Scottish? Legend has it that the population descended from Scottish soldiers, who stumbled across the area whilst fleeing a battle 500 years ago.
But it’s not just their supposed ancestors flying the Scottish flag – the inhabitants today wear traditional tartan, grab drinks in their local Scottish bar and they even mix Scottish into their language…Ay, can you believe it! These are the Italian locals keeping this delightfully unexpected Scottish tradition alive.
MIT Technology Review (February 29, 2024): The new issue features ‘The Hidden Worlds Issue’ – Is Anybody Out There? Using technology to explore and expose hidden worlds, from enabling deeper dives into ocean depths to journeying to one of Jupiter’s orbiting bodies to pushing the boundaries of particle physics. Plus: wearables for wildlife, Wi-Fi sensing, and a reconsideration of Luddites.
The Large Hadron Collider hasn’t seen any new particles since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012. Here’s what researchers are trying to do about it.
Figuring out how the human body can withstand underwater pressure has been a problem for over a century, but a ragtag band of divers is experimenting with hydrogen to find out.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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